It's official: Two Republicans who want to be the district attorney for the 25th Judicial District have filed with the state board of elections and paid their $1,740 filing fee.
The incumbent, Jay Gaither filed on Jan. 8.
Shawn Clark filed Friday.
BACKGROUND:
Gaither was elected district attorney of the 25th prosecutorial district in November 2002 and took office Jan. 1, 2003. In 2006, he was re-elected.
He graduated from Davidson College and went on to California Western Law School in San Diego where he got his law degree in 1992. Before being elected District Attorney, Gaither specialized in property law, criminal defense and civil law.
Clark attended Campbell University Law School after graduating from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte. He got his law degree in 1997 and began practicing law in Hickory, opening his own firm in 2001.
He specializes in criminal defense and domestic law.
PLATFORM:
Gaither has pledged to continue to work with law enforcement to provide fair and vigorous prosecution of accused criminals. His other priorities include assisting and protecting victims of crimes and continuing to reduce the number of backlogged cases.
Gaither takes pride in his conviction rate of driving while impaired and increasing the average jail term for convicted child sex offenders.
Clark has pledged to try cases personally, lower crime rates by increasing the number of convic-tions and speed the prosecution of cases.
He has also said he'll create and environment in the district attorney's office that will draw highly qualified assistant district attorneys to his staff and establish a website to alert victims and officers of cases that have been postponed so that they will not have to spend time in court unneces-sarily.
BELIEFS:
Clark devoted a page of his campaign brochure to detailing his spiritual beliefs and commit-ments. He writes that he became a Christian in 1995, is a deacon of New Life Baptist Church and was called by God to be the district attorney.
Gaither attends the First Presbyterian Church in Hickory.
TROUBLES:
Both candidates have come under scrutiny.
Clark is being sued for alienation of affection by the husband of a former client. The lawsuit says Clark had an affair with the man's wife, bought her a ticket to Las Vegas and paid for a hotel room for her there.
Clark denies the allegations. He and his wife have filed a lawsuit against his former client.
Gaither came under fire when a year-old DWI surfaced in January. Although Gaither was not driving and was not arrested, his friend was driving Gaither's van and pleaded guilty to DWI. Gaither admits he was in the van and said he did not realize his friend was impaired.
He calls the incident an error in judgment.
BY THE NUMBERS:
$119,300: Base salary for District Attorneys in N.C.
36: Employees working in the office of the 25th Judicial District, District Attorney's office
18: Lawyers employed in the office of the 25th Judicial District, District Attorney's office
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement